As the grand-niece of the Indian classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj and niece of the composer duo Jatin-Lalit, Shweta Pandit was surrounded by music from birth. The Bollywood star was born on 7 July 1986 in Mumbai, Maharashtra and became one of the youngest singers in the industry when at the age of four she worked with Indian composer Ilayaraja for the 1990 film Anjali. She also recorded music for Saaz, the first movie from renowned tabla player Ustad Zakkir Hussain, which came out in 1998. Her career went in leaps and bounds after that, with her breakthrough coming in 2000 via Yash Raj Films and Aditya Chopra's Mohabbatein and a succession of hits following in its wake, including "Ishq Khudai" from 2004 Indian Hindi-language sci-fi action film Rudraksh, "Jhini Jhini" from 2008 political crime thriller Sarkar Raj, 'Madhubala" from 2011 rom-com Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, and "Heera" from 2014's road drama film Highway. She began forging a solo music career when she was just 16 years old, releasing her debut album Main Zindagi Hoon on EMI Virgin Records India in 2002 and going on to issue a string of pop albums including 2005's Aplam Chaplam featuring Bollywood legend Salman Khan. She has also recorded songs for the Telugu and Tamil film industry and in 2009 won her first Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the Telugu hit rom-com Kotha Bangaru Lokam (for"Nenani Neevani" by Mickey J Meyer). That same year, she toured as a lead vocalist as part of Oscar winner A. R. Rahman's Jai Ho Journey Home Concert – World Tour and the following year performed "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire with A. R. Rahman at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo. She went on to reap other awards and accolades over the years, winning the Radio Mirchi Best Female Playback Singer for her first Tamil hit solo "Idhayam" from Billa 2 (2012) and the MAA Award for Telugu Best Female Playback Singer for the film Shirdi Sai (2013). She celebrated 25 years of A.R. Rahman in 2017 at the Mirchi Music Awards and in 2021 recorded "Premante Enti" for the 2021 Indian Telugu-language rom-com Pelli SandaD. In 2022, she recorded the song "Hey Ram Ram Ram."
